Visit to Willow Creek (Day five) – Bill Hybels Q & A

On the final day they’d saved the best until last. We had a whole day of Q&A with Bill Hybels. This was simply awesome.

He gave answers and wisdom to questions about the priority of marriage and the family over ministry; issues worldwide that the church needs to be prepared for in the future; church and politics; work-life balance; staff empowerment; staff selection and firing; spiritual warfare; teaching series planning; developing new teams; the importance of self-awareness, relational and emotional intelligence; humility; integrity; marketplace ministry; succession planning; the importance of younger leaders in succession planning; global poverty; compassion; governance; the 20-something generation; the Reveal survey; leadership mistakes he has made; church planting and multi-site ministry. This was leadership gold from someone who pastored Bill Clinton after his affair and who has led a church over 35 years into a place where it is as influential as a church can possibly be. Asked whether how he maintains humility, he said its not difficult, because there are people in Barrington who have never heard of Willow Creek, and although they might reach over 20,000 people, this is in a city of 8 million. ‘What keeps me humble is the overwhelming task ahead of us all. There are millions who are not reconciled to God and unless we as a church leaders are show our people that our hearts break for the lost and like them make stumbling and bumbling efforts to talk to our friends about Jesus, our churches won’t recover the heart for evangelism that every Christ follower should have.’

When asked about the culture of serving that is so evident at Willow Creek, Bill said it has taken 37 years to develop, and needs to be taught consistently and biblically. ‘The local church is the hope of the world. What better thing is there to serve? The New Testament knows nothing of consumerist Christianity.’

As if to back up his point, after the day had finished I thanked one member of the excellent hospitality team that had volunteered to serve us all week with drinks, breakfast, lunch and dinner. His reply? Word for word: ‘Oh thank you; it’s a joy. Jesus has done so much for me, and this church has done so much for me, it’s just a delight to serve him. I just love doing my part to help.’ He walked out of the room we were in and my jaw was on the floor.

With head and heart full of ideas, information, stimulation, challenge and encouragement, my two travelling companions and I quietly made our way to the car, and travelled to our hosts, resting in the reality that we had just experienced one of the best weeks that we could have possibly asked for and a day with Bill Hybels, a man after God’s heart who has been mightily used by Him.